Monthly Archives: October 2013

On friday at the Worcester Goalkeeper Academy, one of our student Goalkeepers, asked us if we could help him find a club to put all his training into practice…

This 8 year-old Goalkeeper, has recently joined us and just loves playing in goal. He is someone already with the right mental attitude, bravery and basic skills that would benefit any football team. The Academy and his parents agree that he would develop further if he was to be playing regularly for a local (Worcestershire) team.

The Worcester Goalkeeper Academy started back on the 4th October 2013, with returning keepers and coaches, along with some new faces… This included new keepers who had heard about our good reputation of developing Goalkeepers and keepers who had found us through the web as they were either frustrated by the lack of Goalkeeper coaching at their football clubs or that they were just eager to improve. We also had new coaches join us: Robbie, a student at the University of Worcester and experienced goalkeeper, who like our current and previous Uni students is interested to develop his coaching skills; and Hannah, who is a 16 year old Goalkeeper at the Academy, wanting to mix in some coaching as she not only wants to develop herself as a goalkeeper but also wants to develop the coaching side, as she now helps coach an under 10 football team.

So Week 1 was all about basics… handling skills, with also ensuring good movement, positioning and safety…. We had lots of fun, with Julia providing an intense fitness session to those that wanted… And the other coaches providing lots of 1 to 1 coaching through dynamic and basic technique exercises… All then followed by lots of game play technique skills training… and of course a few fun and games along the way, including a little bit of competition thrown in to make for and enjoyable learning environment.

Last night (week2) was in a similar vain, with Julia again as she will for the term taking those for an intense fitness session. The topic this time was to build on week 1, now focussing on low diving saves. Again, we were looking at basic technique development, game play technique skills training and some agility training to start developing footwork…. Oh and of course lots of fun!

The main thing is that we are seeing improvements every night, week to week, which is something we will be building on. However it is not just us that are seeing improvements…

…2 weeks in and we have already had some great feedback from the parents, those commenting on the quality of the training and those who tell us that after week 1, (from our help) one of the Goalkeepers played so well in goal that his performance was praised by the team and what’s more, whereas in the previous week the team had lost to local rivals, when they met them again in the cup they won 2-0, with the Goalkeeper to thank for the save after save he produced… Great feedback indeed, as it is always good to find out that our training has provided positive improvements, recognised by their parents and football teams…